


Would you still follow me?

by redghostcity



Category: Heaven Official's Blessings, Hob - Fandom, Mxtx - Fandom, tgcf, tian guan ci fu
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Blood mentioned, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Role Reversal, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred, Self-Sacrifice, day 2 - role reversal, hcweek2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-10
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:21:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21747448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redghostcity/pseuds/redghostcity
Summary: Xian Le's Crown Prince meets a nice stranger who promises to give him anything he asks for, even if what he requires is to save his country from inminent devastation... but the prince has to pay a price.Alternative title: Prince Hua Cheng makes a deal with Calamity Xie Lian.
Relationships: Huā Chéng/Xiè Lián
Comments: 7
Kudos: 155
Collections: Hua Cheng Week 2019





	Would you still follow me?

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: Hua Cheng's eyes.
> 
> This is the english version of the work! If you prefer a spanish version, I also made one. One last thing, this is my first story made in english so I hope you understand there will probably be some mistakes.

His steps were barely audible, covered by the grass. Xian Le’s Crown Prince was running, going further away from his palace. He was still a nine year old child so it was his first time doing this kind of wrongdoing. The reason behind his misbehaviour was that the children he used to play with were reluctant to approach and talk because his eyepatch broke, revealing an odd red eye. Ashamed and infuriated because he felt the fear and the judging looks, he ran away.

_Mom and dad will find out that I’m not in my bedroom and will worry about me. When they find out where I am and what happened, those stupid children would be punished until they won’t be able to look at me like that anymore!_

Those were the kind of thoughts that the little prince had while going deeper into the woods surrounding the royal palace. 

The child’s breath was agitated but he didn’t care at all. The only thing that mattered was to get his revenge and to overcome the embarrassment. His parents usually told him that his body condition carried a bad omen and thus, he wasn’t able to let others see it. People were superstitious and believed in gods so the fact of Xian Le’s very own prince having a red eye would create a state of agitation.

A few minutes passed until the boy went into a halt, gasping to catch his breath. He looked at his surroundings and found out that that place was unknown to him. Still, he wasn’t worried because he knew that the servants would be able to find him in no time, so he just sat down in the root of a tree.

Two hours passed.

Three.

Four.

The prince started to feel cold as the night hovered over him. He tried to count the stars silently but his stomach growled from raw appetite. Everything was pitch dark, so he looked at the area surrounding him with crescent fear and shrink to feel safer. He closed his eyes shut, wondering when would he be rescued.

_I shouldn’t be sleeping. If someone comes and I don’t notice it, they won’t find me._

His eyelids opened to find out that the woods were being illuminated by a bonfire.

His expression reflected his surprise, only to become even more exaggerated the moment he became aware that his body was wrapped in a blanket and that there was a man cooking something by his side. 

“Oh! Are you awake?” The said man spoke in a sweet manner.

“...” The prince still couldn’t bounce back from the shock. He looked puzzled.

“I’m sorry! I must had startled you. My name is Xie Lian. How about yours?” He rubbed his hand against his own hair and displayed an awkward expression.

“My name is Hua Cheng.” The prince wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to say his title.

“Nice name, Hua Cheng!” Xie Lian looked at the fire and hurriedly took out the fish he was cooking. “Look, the food is ready. Do you wanna eat it?”

His voice was so sweet that he looked like the goodest man alive.

“Okay… I will eat what Xie Lian gege made.” Since the older one was being so nice, Hua Cheng decided that he will show amability too.

“You are a nice child!” 

The prince started eating with caution at first, but the fish was really good and he was hungry so, before he could even realize, the food was already gone.

“Do you have more?” he asked with hesitation.

“Yes. I have everything you could want.” 

The phrase was a bit off but Hua Cheng didn’t mind. At least, not until he saw Xie Lian make more fish appear out of nowhere.

He was astonished. 

“Is…” he wasn’t sure about how to ask it. “Is gege a god?”

He didn’t really believed in Xian Le’s folklore but now his eyes made him think the exact opposite.

There was a short pause in which both, man and child, looked at each other.

“For some I would say that I’m something like that.”

It was all that Hua Cheng needed.

“I, Xian Le’s Crown Prince, will remember you.” He said with a pure resolution.

“You are really the cutest child, aren’t you?” Xie Lian said, smiling. “If you ever need me, you can pray to me. I will help you. But! It has to be something really really important, m’kay?”

“All right, gege.”

Hua Cheng ate again and let Xie Lian lift him back to the palace. Before parting ways, the little prince looked up to the man who cared for him that night and didn’t say anything about his eye and asked:

“Do people call you in any special way?”

Xie Lian was already going away, but he stopped onto his steps and turned back at him.

The wind howled.

“They call me…”

  
  
  


Hua Cheng was still able to remember those words many years after, as if they had been said into his ear the night before.

_Body in abyss,_

_heart in abyss._

  
  


Xian Le was going into war and the threatening chaos was unstoppable. The once little prince was now the newly named king and everyone knew about his odd eye. 

_Dark times are coming._ That’s what the civilians were thinking.

The king wore his creed close to his heart, making temples inside the palace and offering all kinds of things to Xie Lian. He knew by now that _Body in abyss, heart in abyss_ was no god.

Xie Lian was a demon. A Calamity.

Still, in the past he treated him with nothing other than kindness, so he did everything that was at his hands to repay him. 

Indeed, dark times were coming and Hua Cheng knew he won’t be able to bear the costs of the upcoming war. The drought decimated the crops and there wasn’t enough food to support the people and the soldiers. The civilians wouldn’t last long without food and water. 

Xian Le was dying.

And his king made a decision. 

“ _Body in abyss, heart in abyss_! Xie Lian! This follower asks for your help!” he shouted, kneeling in front of a small statue of the demon, the veins on his arms pouring blood into the floor where an array had been drawn.

The candles went off by a sudden breeze. There was only pitch darkness, a king offering his own blood to make his wishes come true and a demon who listened to his prayers.

“A long time passed, Hua Cheng. You have grown up.” 

His soothing voice sent sweet shivers down the king’s spine. That voice sounded so calm but Hua Cheng sensed that it could also carry the power to destroy civilizations and put thousands of people on their knees. He couldn’t help but gulp at the thought.

“I will offer everything you want… everything gege wants to save my country.”

The demon chuckled.

“You know what I am, right?” Xie Lian’s voice sounded a little deeper than before. It looked like he was starting to get into business.

“This follower of yours knows that you are a demon.”

“M’kay then! I will gladly help you, Hua Cheng.”

The king felt like his body was lighter than before and his heart finally beat with hope.

“Thank you, this one appreciates the help of this admirable demon.”

“But you know, Hua Cheng…” Xie Lian’s voice sounded sweeter than before. “There’s a price.”

“I’m willing to pay it.” He answered with resolution, but his heart sank a little.

“Be a good boy and listen first.”

The demon went closer to him, until his lips were almost touching his left ear. The hands of the Calamity caressed his arms and cured the damaged skin. Hua Cheng felt his body shivering in response.

“I want you to obey every order I’m going to give to you until you draw your last breath. Every. Order.” While whispering softly, he became even closer with every word, until he grazed Hua Cheng’s ear with his lips. “You have to forget about yourself and your beliefs. Your only purpose will be to serve me.”

Then, the demon stood away and placed himself in front of Hua Cheng, forcing the king to look up while kneeling down.

The follower couldn’t help but tremble. 

_Would I be able to give my everything to save this country? The same country that is scared of me because of my red eye?_

He knew that even if the people were superstitious, they actually reverenced and praised him as a king. He also remembered the warm treatment that Xie Lian gave to him when he was a child and concluded, while looking at the demon’s calm and brown eyes that observed him with nothing but pure amability, that he ought to do it. That he wanted to do it.

“What do you say, Hua Cheng?”

He was still reluctant to say something.

“Would you still follow me?” And then, an intoxicating voice followed by an inviting pale hand wrecked Hua Cheng’s last shreds of sanity.

He took the hand and stood up.

“Yes. This follower of yours will gladly accept.”

Xie Lian, the Calamity, _body in abyss, heart in abyss,_ smiled.

Hua Cheng wasn’t sure if it was a warm smile or not, but there was no turning back.


End file.
